Humanitarian Response To Disasters Should Not Exclude Disabled People

Mar 14, 2014

“People with impairments suffer disproportionately when a humanitarian disaster strikes. There is a long history of disabled people being excluded from humanitarian crisis responses,” Sue Coe, a development and disability inclusion consultant, writes in SciDev.Net. “Providing access to humanitarian response for disabled people shouldn’t be classified as ‘taking risks.’ It is fulfilling their rights. … My hope is disability inclusion will be seen as a regular part of all humanitarian response in [the] future, will be recognized by all donors, and extended across all impairment groups” (3/14).